


A Ring for Beau

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [58]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 12:40:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18282554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: The Nein get Beau a present.





	A Ring for Beau

Caleb looked up when he heard Beau’s footsteps coming rhythmically down the stairs. She gave him a tired nod and snatched an apple off his plate. He frowned. “The kitchen is open for breakfast if you want to eat,” he said pointedly.

Beau shrugged and took a bite out of his apple. “Can’t. Heading to the Reserve for training before we leave town tomorrow. Where’s everyone else?”

“Jester and Nott left about an hour ago, I didn’t ask why, I thought I might be concerned by the answer they would have given me. As far as I know, Fjord is still sleeping. Caduceus came down to get some water from the kitchen and then back up to their room, so he’s probably in the middle of making tea.”

Beau nodded and finished off her apple, sitting the leftover core on the table. “Sweet. Let them know I’ll be back around dinner.” She started towards the door, then paused and walked back to pluck a piece of bacon from Caleb’s plate. He frowned but let her. “See ya. Hey Jes, hey Nott. Just heading out,” she said as she passed her two friends on her way outside.

Caleb heard Jester squeak. “Beau! What are you doing here?” His eyebrow furrowed curiously and he tried to lean over to see if he could see Jester’s face. It sounded like she was hiding something.

Beau seemed to think so too because he raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I really don’t have time for all the questions I have right now. I’ll ask later. See ya.”

When she was gone, Jester and Nott hurried in through the front door, whispering to each other conspiratorially. “Caleb!” Nott exclaimed when she caught his eyes. “We have an idea!”

Yeah, this was a bad sign. “What idea?” They both took seats across the table from him.

“So, you know how Beau is a boring, no-magic human?” Nott asked.

“Weeeelllll,” Jester started, looking unsure. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, it sounds mean. But, yeah, basically. You know how she can’t do a disguise spell and gets all moody about it?”

“Are you here just to roast her behind her back?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and pushing his cold egg around the plate with his fork.

“No, no, no. We may have found a way to fix it. A ring like Dairon’s.”

“Really? Where?”

“It’s for sale in a store in the Pentamarket. There’s only one problem. It’s stupid expensive. It’s even more expensive than it should be because apparently the ring is an antique or whatever. They want 30,000 gold for it.”

“Ah,” he said. “That’s too bad. Oh well.”

“No,” Nott started, standing up in her chair to lean over and whisper to him. “We have a plan.”

“To….?”

“To steal it for her.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we were staking it out for a while and we checked over the store and we think we’ve figured it out. We need the whole group to pull it off. Except Ducie, because I don’t think he’d appreciate something like this.”

Caleb looked concerned. “I don’t know… This is one of the few cities we’re not barred from entering, I’d like to return here at some point.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, it’s a fool-proof plan.”

“We are a group of fools, so I should hope so, ja?”

“Caleb,” Nott started, reaching over to put her hand on top of his. “You are not a fool, you are perfect. But yeah, the rest of them are pretty bad.”

Caleb sighed but didn’t bothering trying to argue with her about his status as a fool, he knew from experience that it was a useless fight. “Very well. What’s the plan?”

 

Fjord cleared his throat as he stepped into the front show area of the jewelry shop. He gave the woman at the counter a charming smile and the young half-elf blushed, smiling sweetly back at him.

“Hello,” she said. “May I help you?”

“I’m looking for a present for my mother, I’m not sure what to get her.”

The woman walked around the counter to stand in front of him. “I can certainly help with that, what budget are we looking at?” 

As this was happening, Nott was scaling the side of the building while Jester kept watch at the end of the alley with Caleb kneeling at her side, searching the building in front of them for magic. “There’s a spell on the second floor, probably that cabinet you told me about. I’ll keep watch, you go ahead.”

Jester nodded and followed Nott up the side of the building, reaching the window just as Nott finished unlocking it. She pushed it open and looked around, finding a few patrons wandering around looking at things, but no one seemed to notice her. She quickly cast invisibility and started skittering down the stairs to the main floor, deftly dodging an older woman as she marched up the stairs.

Jester pulled herself in as well, quickly casting a disguise spell to make herself look like a half elf in the same uniform as the woman running the counter down stairs. She couched and tried to subtly shut the window, smiling when someone looked up at her. The woman’s eyes widened and started walking towards her and Jester froze in fear. Had she been made?

“There you are! Finally, someone who works here. I need help.”

Jester cleared her throat. “Certainly. What can I do to help you?”

“I like these earrings but do you have them in another color?”

“They are… antiques,” she tried. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure if they were.

“Yes, I realize that, but do you have this same pair in blue?”

“N-No, I don’t think so.”

“Could you look?”

Jester just nodded. “Sure, sure, I’ll look in the back.” She wasn't going to look in the back. She walked into a the room where she’d seen the magic ring, locked in a case with a few other magic pieces of jewelry. She looked around to make sure that she wasn’t being watched and cast a quick dispel magic spell over the case. 

Nott reached the bottom of the stairs and scurried behind the counter while Fjord talked up the counter woman.

“How does your mother feel about bees?” the woman was asking.

“Loves them.”

“Well, we have a bee broach over here, nearly a hundred years old and one of a kind.”

Nott rolled her eyes but started looking furiously around for a key. She cursed under her breath when she couldn’t find one. She climbed up onto the counter, still invisible and started looking around for somewhere else it could be hidden. She spotted a ring of keys hanging from the wall. If she were standing on the floor, the keys would be a few feet above her head. She sighed and looked around to make sure that the woman was well distracted. The woman giggled flirtatiously at something Fjord was saying and decided that that was good enough. With a huff, she leapt off the counter and snatched the keys from the wall, landing with a heavy thump at the base of the stairs.

The woman Fjord was talking to frowned and looked away from him. “Did you hear that?”

“I think it came from outside,” Fjord said. “What were you saying about your friend?”

She hesitated and looked around the store, but didn’t seem to notice anything amiss and turned back to him, continuing her story. Nott hurried up the stairs, passed Jester’s feet while an older woman was yelling at her about her customer service. She came around to the cabinet and climbed up on the table next to it. She held onto the side of the cabinet to balance herself and reached over, struggling to unlock it without falling to the floor. It took a few tries and a few different keys, but she finally found the right one and grinned at the click when it finally unlocked. The cabinet door swung open as she swiftly snatched the ring out of it. She stuffed the ring down into her boot and then quickly snatched a few more necklaces and bracelets because they were shiny. She shut and locked the cabinet and then ran back through the store to the stairs. Jester was gone now and the window was hanging open and Nott felt better knowing that she was out.

She walked down the stairs and sat the ring of keys on the floor beneath the hook to make it seem like they’d just fallen off. Fjord noticed the movement of the keys being sat down. And tried to end the conversation. “Thank you, so much for your help. I’m going to take your suggestions to my sister and get her opinion and we should be back in later today or tomorrow to pick something.”

She blushed and smiled softly. “Come again. I get off at five.”

He smiled smoothly. “I’ll keep that in mind.” As he left the store he felt a small, invisible figure squeezing out the door beside him. He spotted Caleb in the alley and walked over to meet him, just as Jester wandered up, her disguise falling away. Nott was still invisible, but he could see her slip her hand into Caleb’s. “Mission success?”

“Yep!” Jester said, grinning. “Let’s go.”

 

Beau groaned and shifted as her body vibrated with pain. Her arm was still a little numb from that last stunning strike, and everytime she took a step she was reminded that two of her ribs were broken. She pushed open the door to the inn and the soft sounds of her friends talking and eating instantly made her feel better.

Caleb looked up first and waved her over. “Hey,” he called. “We ordered you dinner.”

Jester looked up next and grinned. “Beau! Come sit by me! I’ll heal you up.”

Beau smiled even though it pulled on her bleeding lip and limped over to sit in her usual chair next to Jester. She sighed as Jester started running her hands over Beau’s shoulders and side to heal her bruises and broken bones. “Thanks, Jes.”

“We got you something,” Fjord said.

Caduceus suddenly frowned. “Not me. I didn’t approve. I hope you enjoy it, regardless.”

Beau raised an eyebrow. “I’m confused, what exactly did you all get up to today while I was gone?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Jester said, deflecting the question. “Caleb, give it to her.”

Caleb fished around in his pocket and pulled out a pretty silver ring. Beau frowned curiously and brought it up to her face to look over the magic runes that were carved into it. She slipped it onto her right ring finger and it magically changed size to fit her. “Thanks, you guys. What’s it do?”

“It’s like Dairon’s ring,” Caleb said. “Twist it and picture what you want to look like and it works as a disguise self spell.”

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Are you shitting me?” She twisted it and in one second, transformed into the red tiefling dude that she had been in Xorhass. “No, fucking way! You guys are the best! Where did you get this?”

“They stole it,” Caduceus said, sneering slightly and taking a sip of tea with a judgemental side eye.

“We did,” Jester said, though she seemed excited about it. “We stole it for you.”

Beau twisted the ring again and turned back into herself. She cleared her throat and got back to her feet. “I’ll… uh… I’ll be right back.” She started walking towards the stairs hurriedly.

“Beau? Do you not like it?”

“I do like it, I just need to do something upstairs.”

Caleb frowned and leaned down to see if he could see her face while she hurried away. “Are you crying?”

“Go fuck yourself!” she called as she disappeared to the second floor.

Caleb looked back at the others to find them all smiling proudly. “I think she likes it.”


End file.
